Becky G: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

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(Kimberley French/Lionsgate)

Becky G, who was born Rebecca Marie Gomez, plays Trini in Power Rangers, the reboot of the popular ’90s TV series. Her character is the Yellow Power Ranger and has gained some extra attention for being gay. This lets Lionsgate and producer Haim Saban claim that Power Rangers is the first big-budget superhero movie to include an LGBT hero.

Gomez is better known for her skills as a singer, scoring a big hit with the 2014 singles “Shower” and “Can’t Stop Dancin.'” She’s also working on her first full-length solo album, which will include the Spanish-language singles “Mangu” and “Sola.”

During a radio interview with Mega 96.3, Gomez revealed that she met her current boyfriend, soccer player Sebastian Lletget through Naomi Scott, who plays Kimberly Hart in Power Rangers. She said that Lletget is friends with Scott’s husband, Jordan Spence.

“[Our introduction] kind of came about while we were filming the movie. The way we got introduced, me and Sebastian, was through my co-star Naomi. Her husband — she’s 23, they’ve been married for a couple years now — and [him] played soccer together, him and Sebastian. So Nae met me and was like, ‘Girl, you’re awesome! You deserve to be with a man!'” Gomez recalled, notes J-14.

2. Her Character is the First LGBT Protagonist in a Superhero Movie

Although smaller indie films, like Moonlight for example, Hollywood’s big blockbusters have been slower to embrace LGBT characters. That’s because they have to also sell in markets that aren’t as open to LGBT representation.

Gomez’s character Trini, the Yellow Power Ranger, is the first LGBT protagonist in a big-budget superhero move. According to The Hollywood Reporter, there’s a scene in the film where she says she’s having “girlfriend problems” instead of “boyfriend problems.”

“For Trini, really she’s questioning a lot about who she is,” director Dean Israelite told The Hollywood Reporter. “She hasn’t fully figured it out yet. I think what’s great about that scene and what that scene propels for the rest of the movie is, ‘That’s OK.’ The movie is saying, ‘That’s OK,’ and all of the kids have to own who they are and find their tribe.”

“They really stepped up to the plate,” David Yost, who played the Blue Ranger in the original Power Rangers and is openly gay, told THR. “I think so many people in the LGBTQI community are going to be excited to see that representation.”

3. This Is Gomez’s First Big Movie Role

Sebastian Lletget and Becky G. (Getty)

This is Gomez’s first big movie role. She was previously a little-seen movie called House of Sin (2011) and played Valentina Galindo in two episodes of Empire in 2015. She’s also working on a movie called Miles with Lucy Hale.

“It was really exciting for me,” Gomez told Teen Vogue when asked about jumping from music to acting. “To be quite honest, I was kind of in a place with my music where I wasn’t feeling inspired anymore. I kind of felt like I was stuck and I didn’t know what was going to happen next. It was this really frustrating moment for me as a creative person to feel like I don’t know what’s beyond.”

She said she felt like she “really, really” needed this and has been inspired to do new things.

“I needed to be in a new head space, around a new environment doing something that I’ve never done before. Inspired to learn again and to feel different things. To feel anxious and nervous and excited again. This movie did just that for me,” she told Teen Vogue.

She also told the magazine that she was a big fan of the Power Rangers franchise and would often pretend to be one with her cousins. “I always wanted to be the yellow one because it just so happened to be my favorite color,” she said.

4. She Grew Up in Poverty & Lived in Her Grandparents’ Garage

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In a 2013 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Gomez said she grew up in poverty and had a “little mini midlife crisis” when she was nine years old. At the time, she was living with her parents, brothers Frankie and Alex and younger sister Stephanie in her grandparents’ garage. He mom was “really scared.”

“I did have this moment of realization of, ‘Oh, my God, what am I going to do with my life?'” she told the LA Times. “Just feeling like I had to get my act together, even though there was really nothing to put together yet.”

The Inglewood, California native told the Times that mortgage payments forced her family to give up their Moreno Valley home. As Gomez started working in Hollywood when she was 9, the family was able to get back on their feet financially.

“We of course suffered, like many families did,” Alex, Gomez’s mother, told the Times. “But I feel like if we wouldn’t have lost our home, we wouldn’t be back in L.A., where Becky was able to find her dream, find her niche.”

In 2008, her career started with an appearance in a short film and a Discovery Channel movie. By the following year, she was a member of the group G.L.A.M. and by 2011, she caught the attention of producer Dr. Luke with her YouTube cover of Jay Z and Kanye West’s “Otis.” In 2013, she scored a hit with the single “Becky from the Block.”

“I’m just going to keep being myself,” Goomez told the LA Times. “When I was doing all this acting stuff, all these kids like assumed, ‘Oh, my God, you’re on TV, and you probably have a lot of money.’ And I was living in a garage.”

5. Her Debut Album Will Include Spanish-Language Songs

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Despite her success with English-language songs, Gomez has decided to record her first full-length album in Spanish. All the singles she’s released from the album so far – “Sola,” “Mangu” and “Todo Cambio” – have been in Spanish. “Todo Cambio” was released on March 3, 2017.

“I love Latin music,” Gomez told TVyNovelas, adding that her Spanish still isn’t great. Her parents, who were born in Mexico, are helping her.

“I always wanted to do it,” she told Latina when asked about her decision to record in Spanish. “Real talk: I was born in America and I’m proud to be both American and Mexican. I listen to Spanish and English music. The first album that I bought was by Christina Aguilera and on one side you could listen to the song in English and then you’d flip it over and hear the same song in Spanish.”